Today we explored Marrakech, visiting the museum and an old palace, viewing the wives’ quarters (4 huge rooms, the largest for the main wife) and the concubines’ quarters (12 rooms, 2 to a room). The concubines were virtually slaves, bought for the king, entrapped in the palace for the purposes of giving birth to the King’s children, belly dancing and entertaining. Interesting. I picked up a few things I had the riad staff wash for me. My new favorite crisp white shirt is now…BLUE! Anyway, I digress. Meandering through the souks, it was fascinating to see the welders welding wrought iron window grilles without safety goggles, or in some cases, even shoes…yikes. People fashioning leather slippers, sewing fabrics, making buckets and even picture frames out of old Michelin tyres (leaving the Michelin name on the photo frames!). We passed by a line of women, sitting on the edge of the alleyway. Apparently they sell and trade stolen gold. I did a little shopping. Well, a lot of bargaining, and a little shopping. There is so much to see in Marrakech. Lunch was at a restaurant on the second floor, overlooking the town square. I could spend days just people watching, hunchbacked men and women, motorcycles hurtling down the narrow alleyways, the whole place is fascinating. The boys went on a mission to find a hidden grog shop to buy beer and wine for dinner tonight, they were successful, bringing back newspaper and black plastic bag-wrapped bottles. I also won another game of Scrabble (yeah!).
